Nightmares in Dreams
by LynxOnSmoothies
Summary: SPOILERS FOR GENOCIDE RUN and PACIFIST RUN. Frisk only slept once during the whole game, Sans keeps falling asleep during the day, and Papyrus needs a story from his brother to fall asleep. They aren't unrelated. Contains: Sadness and depictions of murder. Coverart by SmokeyJack on Deviantart. Fem-Frisk for simplicity's sake. If demand is high, might expand into an actual story.
1. Sans's Sorrows

So I wanted to pay homage to my favorite character in any game but I didn't know how. Until I discovered some amazing fanart and based this and the next two chapters off of them.

To explain, in this story, if Frisk is killed by a boss (Sans, Papyrus, Asgore, etc.) it causes a full reset of the timeline to when she fell. If she dies to a lesser monster (lesser dog, greater dog, shyren, etc.) she resets to her last save.

Underlined are Echo Flowers

 _Italicized are dreams_

 **Bold is internal voices**

* * *

No one had come by the whole day.

Sans blinked slowly, head drooping as he leaned on the counter of his hotdog stand. He was so tired, he could just close his sockets and go to sleep. **Don't**. He wrenched his eyes back open. That's right. HE was right. Sans couldn't sleep; Frisk—hopefully Frisk, please Frisk this time—hadn't been by yet. At least, that's what he told himself.

In reality, he was afraid. He couldn't bear to dream. To remember what had been and hadn't been at the same time. But he was so tired, and he could only keep himself occupied for so long. **Stay awake, Sans. Please.** He tilted his head into his palm. Maybe he would go joke with Toriel from the otherside of the door. **But what if she isn't there? Just stay awake, Sans.** Perhaps… He yawned, a trip to Grillby's would…help…

 **NO SANS**. But it was too late. Sans closed his sockets and saw.

 _This wasn't how it was meant to be. It had never been like this._

 _"I KNOW YOU CAN CHANGE, HUMAN." Papyrus's skull lay on the ground, as his body turned to dust, mixing with the blizzard raging around them. Frisk stood above him, red eyes glinting and white teeth blending with the frenzy of snow flakes. Frisk didn't have red eyes; that wasn't Frisk. It was rarely Frisk anymore. **PLEASE SANS, I CAN'T WATCH THIS AGAIN! SANS!** Not-Frisk raised the knife in her hand, grinning maliciously. The red light of her heart glinted off the dusty blade. Sans tried to move, to stop Not-Frisk but he couldn't move, paralyzed with disbelief. Sans could only scream as Not-Frisk stabbed the blade through the top of Papyrus's skull, twisting it with a horrible giggle in Frisk's voice, shattering it and turning it to dust. All that was left was Papyrus's tattered red scarf, quickly being buried underneath the onslaught of snow._

 _"PAPYRUS!" Sans screamed, falling to his knees in agony, his voice swept away by the raging storm. Not his little brother, his cool little brother. He can't lose him. **Sans, wake up now!** He clutched his skull, tears streaming from his empty eye sockets as Not-Frisk laughed, kicking the scarf out of her way. Sans had known this would be a different run, unlike the others but this… Sans wasn't prepared for this. **Sans, it's not real! Wake up!** Sans started hyperventilating, his ribs aching as his heart broke. No, this wasn't happening. Frisk—but it wasn't Frisk—would never hurt Papyrus. **PLEASE Sans, wake up!**_

 _He wouldn't forgive her. Not-Frisk would pay. Pay for replacing sweet Frisk, pay for killing Toriel, pay for being a **DIRTY BROTHER KILLER.** **Sans wake up right now!** Sans stood up, left eye socket glowing blue. Not-Frisk wouldn't get away with this. Sans gathered up Papyrus's scarf, wrapping it around his neck. Not-Frisk would pay, but Sans couldn't do anything until she reached the castle. _

_Heading home, tears blurring his sight, Sans choked on a sob. Rushing into Papyrus's room, he fell onto the baby-bones racecar bed that Ga…HE had given Papyrus all those years ago. **Sans…** It hurt. It hurt so bad, it near broke his funny bones. "Papyrus…" Sans sobbed quietly on his brother's bed, clutching the scarf with all his might. He stayed there for as long as he could, as days passed, before he had to continue on to judge Not-Frisk. To judge that **DIRTY BROTHER KILLER** in the Hall of Judgement. _

_As Sans walked along the path, he passed the Echo Flowers dotting the way. What he heard made him cry. "STANDING UNDER THE SKY, LOOKING AT THE WORLD ALL AROUND… THAT IS MY WISH." **Sans…**_

 _"pfft…*laughs*" **Sans… I... I**_

 _"…HEY! YOU SAID YOU WOULDN'T LAUGH AT IT!" His little baby-bones brother… Sans stumbled, falling to his knees, clutching the tattered red scarf._

 _"Sorry, it's just funny. That's my dream too." Tears streamed down San's cheek bones, and a sob caught in his throat. His face was in his hands, bone fingers scraping across a bone face with a sicken screeching. It wasn't meant to be like this. It was never meant to be like this._

"SANS!" Sans jerked himself awake, eye socket's opening to see Papyrus standing in front of him. That's right, Sans said to himself, as Papyrus lectured him about his 'Lazy-bones' behavior. That was another run. Papyrus was fine. Toriel was fine. FRISK would be the one here this time.

Sans was fine. **Don't lie to us both. Just... Don't go back to sleep.** Sans stood up, yawning.

"SANS! ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?! GAH! HOW ARE YOU THE OLDER BROTHER?" Papyrus planted his hands on his hips, leaning back. Sans smirked, stuffing his hands in his jacket.

"I was born first, says so on our certificates. No BONES about it." Papyrus threw his hands up in the air and stalked off, yelling back for Sans to change his puzzles. Sans watched him go, smiling. That was his little bro... He closed his sockets, sighing. It was time. **We could wait for her to come to us. It doesn't have to start that way.** But it did.

The woods were snowy, as with everytime. The door to the Ruins was closed, but the snow around it showed it had opened recently, and small footprints led away from the door. Turning, Sans could see the faint form of Frisk-please be Frisk-walking briskly through the snow drifts. Sans trailed closely behind, slippers sliding through the snow with soft swishes. And if it wasn't Frisk...He stopped looking down at the branch in the path. He smashed it. Frisk— **she turned around, Sans. It's probably her** —spun around and investigated the noise. She saw nothing but the shattered branch, as Sans was watching from the trees. When Frisk-but was it truly her? Sans had been wrong before-continued on, he slipped behind her, silently trudging through the snow. And as always, he stopped her at the bridge.

"Human." Frisk froze up, shoulders locking tight. "Don't you know how to greet a new pal? Turn around and shake my hand." This was it. The test. Was it Frisk? Please let it be Frisk. He couldn't take another Genocide run, **not after the last one.** Sans flinched away from the thoughts, the memories of events that never happened, both good and bad. He never could pick which one hurt more; the horrible ones, or the great ones. Frisk turned around, and hesitantly took his hand-and broke into giggles as the whoopee cushion let out its call. A huge grin split Sans's skeletal face as she sniggered.

It was her. It was all going to be alright.

 **This time.** Sans tightened his grip ever so slightly, smile clenching as he laughed. This would be the last run, no more RESETS. He would figure it this time, how to stop the rewind. He wouldn't lose anyone this time. **Not even her?** He looked down at the sparkling brown eyes of Frisk—not red, not like HER—and gave a grin at amusement. No, not even her. Not this time.

* * *

This chapter was based off of two images. The first was Yeah! Still! By Nhaigen on Tumblr and the other was (You hear a passing conversation) by Wezryl on Tumblr. I recommend going and looking at them. I was also listening to the Undertale Parody of Stronger than You. Love that song. Definitely go listen to it if you haven't heard it.

Bonus points for whoever can guess who the voice in Sans's head is.

*EDIT: The fonts won't work, so this will be plain. Sorry folks. If you know how to get special fonts (Papyrus, Comic Sans, ETC.) to work, drop me a line. I would love for this to look how it was meant to. I know its possible. I've seen fonts in other stories. TELL ME.

**EDIT: Made the formatting a bit easier on the eyes. Sorry about that guys.


	2. Frisk's Fears

_Italicized are dreams_

 **Bold are interal voices**

Underlined are Echo Flowers

* * *

She was so tired, but Frisk didn't dare to sleep. The last time she did, she dreamt of realities that had never happened—right? They hadn't happened, they weren't real—and she feared it. She wanted to sleep so badly, but she wouldn't. She didn't dare to close her eyes, and see them all again. Not until she had broken the barrier, had atoned for all the suffering. **But if it had never happened, what was there to atone for? Stop lying to yourself, you pathetic fool.** Frisk knew, but she pushed that down, along with the need for sleep.

Not until she knew for certain it couldn't be RESET—RESET like all the times she died—to…that, then Frisk would rest. **But wasn't it nice?** No, it wasn't nice. It was horrifying. And after Frisk had met Sans, met Papyrus… The instant she was alone she threw up. **That's right. You're a murderer; how does it feel?** Frisk opened her eyes, shaking her head quickly. Remembering was worthless. Remembering made her sick. **Then let's remember.**

 _Frisk didn't want to do this, but she had no control over herself. She watched as she swung her knife, tearing a gash down Papyrus's front. He wasn't even trying to hurt her, and she was tearing him apart. **Don't lie. You like it. I LOVE IT**. Frisk struggled within her own mind, watching as Papyrus fell beneath her blade, just like how Toriel fell before him. He stood back up, smiling sadly and did another half-hearted attack. **It's like he thinks you'll stop. How pathetic.** A swift slice of the blade severed his head, and his body dissolved into dust._

 _Papyrus's skull fell to the ground, and he looked up at her with soft acceptance. Frisk sobbed, curling up in her mind as her body laughed. All she wanted for him to fight back. "I KNOW YOU CAN CHANGE, HUMAN." Frisk's body laughed harder, and brought the knife down through the top of his skull, shattering it into dust. Laughing harder, she kicked the scarf out of her way and continued on out of Snowdin._

 _She swiped the dust from her clothes, laughing as Frisk cried in her head. "Isn't it wonderful? Once the UNDERGROUND is empty, we'll take Flowey and head on up to the ABOVEGROUND and finish what we started? Don't you just love it?" Manic laughter echoed around the Waterfall, increasing with every Echo Flower it touched until the sound was inescapable. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Frisk retreated to the back of her mind, screaming as faces brushed by her. Shyren, Aaron, Dogamy, Dogaressa, Nabstablook, Lesser Dog, Greater Dog, Woshua, Muffet, Monster Kid... They all blended together in a mash of screams and dust. Make it stop, make it stop, MAKE IT STOP! **But it never will. Everytime it will be the same, no matter what. Isn't it WONDERFUL?**_

 _Soon Frisk was standing before Sans. Oh God. Sans._

 _He had Papyrus's scarf wrapped around his neck, as he stood with empty eye sockets, scratches lining the edges of those empty pits, blocking her way through the castle. The cold look he gave her made her heart break, made her want to cry out that it wasn't her, she didn't do it. But Frisk had no control over her voice, her body, her actions. All she could do was watch as her body fought the punny skeleton. A skeleton she couldn't bare to hurt._

 _"You DIRTY LITTLE BROTHER KILLER." No Sans, it wasn't her! She didn't do it! Sans PLEASE!_ **Urg, my least favorite part is coming up. Can't I skip it?** _Sans struck out faster than Frisk's body could, and he scorched her flesh. She could feel it searing, could hear her voice screaming. It hurt less than her heart did. Frisk's body pulled itself up. Her knife glinted as she dove to slice at the short skeleton. He easily dodged her attack, eye sockets glowing blue. Her heart felt heavy as he held his arm out, smirking cruelly. He slammed her down into the ground, against the pillars, the ceiling; it hurt so bad. Frisk could feel her body breaking as her heart did, turning blue. One last snap broke her back, leaving her body to scream before Frisk shoved her way to the front._

 _Sans bent down over her broken, smoking body, gathering it up in his arms. Looking down at her, he gave a sad smile. "There you are." He knew. He knew it wasn't her._ **But it was you. As much you as it was me.** _Frisk raised her hand-her fingers were not meant to be at that angle-to his skeletal face, giving a weak smile as the world went slowly black._ **Yeah yeah, boo hoo. Your little boyfriend kills you, like the weakling that you are.**

Frisk opened her eyes, standing before the entrance to the Castle. This time was different. This time, Frisk was Frisk. This time she laughed at Sans's puns, and played with Papyrus. This time she might have even flirted back with Grillby, though she definitely responded to Sans. **You sicken me, you pathetic little freak.** Frisk sighed, walking over the bridge and through the columns. Golden light poured through the gaps, reflecting the DETERMINATION in Frisk's eyes.

Sans wasn't going to hate her. That meant the most out of all of this.

* * *

This chapter was based off of the image Sans and Frisk by Fighteramy on Deviantart and UNDERTALE VS UNDERFELL by TheScarred on Deviantart.

Can anyone guess who Frisk's voice was?

*EDIT: Made the formatting a little easier on the eyes. Sorry guys.


	3. Papyrus's Perseverance

_Italicized are dreams._

 **Bold are internal voices.**

Underlined are Echo Flowers.

* * *

Papyrus hated sleeping.

He hated what he could see when he slept. Sans thought he didn't like to sleep because he had Important Cool Guy Things he Needed To Do every day, but that wasn't the whole truth. Papyrus leaned back against his door, looking up at his clock. It was almost time for Sans to come and read him his bedtime story. It was both Papyrus' favorite and least favorite part of everyday. On one hand, his sweet big brother was there, spending time with him to read a story. On the other, after Sans was done, Papyrus was obliged to go to sleep—after all, if his cool big brother was willing to read him a story, Papyrus had to go to sleep! **Feh, it's like listening to a big baby.**

Papyrus stood up indignant. He was the Great and Powerful Papyrus! He was no baby! Papyrus flopped down on his Cool Guy Red Car Bed, tossing an arm across his face as his ever present smile faded. He did not want to sleep; memories sucked. **That's right, huh? You remember EVERYTHING. Tell me, did you tell your big brother?** No. That would only make Sans worry, and since Papyrus had to protect his brother, it wouldn't do to upset him like that. Sans would feel he had to take care of Papyrus, but he wasn't able to! That's why Papyrus took care of him instead. **Just keep living in your delusion there.**

Besides, Sans didn't remember the RESETS. Papyrus wouldn't tell him either; it would just distress his big brother. That's why Papyrus kept smiling, so Sans would keep smiling. If he kept smiling, then Sans might forget about… Papyrus sighed, gritting his teeth together. He looked over at the clock. Sans was late. Well, if Sans was going to be late, the Fabulous Papyrus would take the opportunity to write in his Ultra Secret Cool Guy Journal. He kept all the events of the day in there, so he would ever forget a moment of it; it was very important to not forget. **I do not understand you, kid. I thought you didn't want to remember.** He didn't, but he had to remember. If no one else could, it was all the more important that HE did.

Papyrus pulled his Ultra Secret Cool Guy Journal out from beneath his mattress, and began describing how excited he was about today's events. 'NYEH NYEH NYEH! TODAY I ENCOUNTERED A HUMAN! THEY ASKED ME OUT ON A DATE AFTER CLEVERLY FOILING ALL OF MY BRILLANT TRAPS! I BELIEVE I WILL TAKE THE HUMAN UP ON HER OFFER!' Pausing in his writing, Papyrus yawned. 'WHEN I FIRST SAW THE HUMAN, BOTH SANS AND I WERE SO EXCITED THAT WE SPUN AROUND AND GOT DIZZY. WE HAD TO TAKE A SMALL BREAK, DURING WHICH THE HUMAN WAS POLITE ENOUGH TO WAIT FOR US TO GET BETTER!'

"Hey, what's that?" Papyrus slammed his Ultra Secret Cool Guy Journal shut and shoved it under his mattress.

"SANS! WHAT WAS WHAT?" **…Really?** Sans blinked, then rubbed the back of his skull. Oh, Papyrus felt so bad deceiving his brother, but that was why Papyrus had to take care of him. He was too easily fooled.

"Huh, I could have sworn I saw you writing in something. Sorry, bro. Guess I'm more tired than I thought I was." He slumped his way over to Papyrus and sat down. "What story do you want to read tonight?"

"THE THREE KITTENS!" Sans smiled, and began reading. Papyrus could feel himself drifting off to sleep, but he couldn't let himself, not until Sans left. He couldn't let Sans see him as anything other than happy. Eye sockets closed, Papyrus listened as Sans finished reading the book and put it down. The press of teeth to his forehead and a "Good night, Paps" was heard as Sans left the room.

Papyrus curled up tightly in his bed, tossing the blankets over his head. **That won't stop it.**

 _Some nights were worse than others. This was one of the bad ones. It wasn't one of the nights where Papyrus dreamt of Not-Frisk killing him; he could deal with those because it was not Frisk who did it. Even the ones where no one were themselves—Metaton cruelly ripping apart monsters, Papyrus murdering Frisk after killing Sans, Sans brutally dismembering Monster Kid and looking to Papyrus for approval, Toriel viciously poisoning people—even those were not the worst. No, the worst were the Could Have Beens. The ones were Frisk is there, and everything was going good._

 _The ones where Frisk befriends Undyne and cooks spaghetti with her, burning her house down. The ones where Toriel comes back, and makes up with Asgore. The ones where Shyren and Nabstablook overcome their shyness to become musical sensations. The ones where Metaton and Frisk dance, laughing, across a stage. The ones were Sans and Frisk wait for him, smiling at him. The ones where they get out of the UnderGround._

 _Those were the worst, because they had happened. And still there was a RESET._ _ **Heh, I have to agree. Those ARE the worst.**_ _Why did everything RESET if it was so happy? What was wrong?_ _ **Because there is no such thing as a happy ending. Trust me, I know.**_

" _Papyrus, are you coming?" Undyne waved to him from the beach, Alphys sitting in the sand. Sans was lying on a beach blanket next to Frisk, who sipped a smoothie smiling. Metation and Nabstablook were playing music while Aaron and Greater dog played volleyball. Papyrus moved forward towards the scene, a bitter sweet warmth filling his chest._ _ **It hurts, doesn't it? To see what we can't have.**_ _No, they could have it. They had had it in the past, and Papyrus would see it all again._

 _ **Hmmmm, keep believing that. Maybe one day you'll delude yourself into believing it.**_

Papyrus opened his eyes, looking at his ceiling. He turned his head to look out his open window at the day glow, catching sight of his guest sitting in the snow on his window frame. He spoke in a quiet voice, so as to not disturb his brother, as the guest tilted his head. "I do believe that."

" **You idiot."**

* * *

So this was the last chapter of this short drabble series, unless anyone has any requests. If enough people want this, I am willing to expand this into a full story. It would be the tale of the last RESET, from my odd point of view.

Anyway, last question. Who was Papyrus's voice? I dropped some major hints.


End file.
